Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a function of deleting data stored in a data storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a secondary storage device that holds various data is mounted to an apparatus such as a printer or a multi-function peripheral in many cases. Examples of the secondary storage device include an SD card, a flash memory, a USB memory, and an HDD (hereinafter, collectively referred to as external media).
In a case where the external media is mounted to the apparatus as described above, when the apparatus is discarded or returned since a lease period expires, a case occurs that the data in the external media is not deleted. In such a case, personal information or confidential information may be leaked to other users.
To avoid the above-described information leakage, a function of returning device settings and held data to factory default settings and a function of deleting the held data (hereinafter, collectively referred to as deletion function) may be provided (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-167681). According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-167681, since discarding or returning is carried out after the deletion of the data in the media is executed by this deletion function, the information leakage is avoided.
Immediately after the deletion of the data in the external media is executed, when a power supply of the apparatus is turned on again in a state in which the external media is mounted, the apparatus recognizes the mounted external media and attempts to use this external media.
In a case where an individual uses the above-described apparatus, since the person who instructs the deletion of the data in the external media is the same as the person who uses the apparatus, the individual hardly uses the apparatus again in which the data in the external media has been deleted.
However, for example, in a case where the apparatus is used in an organization such as an institution or a company like a printer or a multi-function peripheral used in an office or the like instead of the use by the individual, a person who manages the apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as administrator) may exist. In such a case, even when the data in the external media is deleted on the basis of an instruction of the administrator, this apparatus may be used by the other user.
In the above-described case, if the power supply is turned on in a state in which the external media is mounted to the apparatus in the related art even when the data in the external media has been already deleted, this apparatus is operated in a mode in which this external media is to be used. For this reason, the user performs an operation of saving personal data in the external media again.